Article carriers used for carrying beverage containers generally fall into several different basic design categories. In the wrap-around type, the carrier is formed by folding a carton blank around an aligned group of beverage bottles or cans and mechanically fastening the ends of the blank together. In the sleeve-type, the carrier blank is folded and glued to form an open-ended sleeve into which the beverage containers are fed. The end panels are then closed and secured in subsequent operations. In both cases the heel portions of the beverage containers extend through cutouts in the panels to assist in holding the containers in place. Except for the protruding heel portions the resulting carrier can readily be designed to fully enclose beverage cans as well as bottles with very short necks, which is highly desirable for some markets. Similar carriers are also commonly designed to hold bottles with somewhat longer necks by provided openings in the top panel of the carton through which the cap of the bottle extends. This design serves to assist in holding the bottles in place.
One problem, however, is that these carriers do not lend themselves to designs suited for carrying tall articles, such as long-necked bottles. Basket-style carriers, which can be used to carry long-necked bottles and which contain transverse partitions for dividing the carrier into bottle-receiving cells, are lifted by means of a handle opening in a center partition. These are open carriers, however, which are not desirable for certain markets, and which do not have as much carton surface for carrying graphics or other advertising material.
Another type of carton, known as a sling-bottom carrier, has been used in the past but has not been well suited to serve as a completely enclosed carrier of long-necked bottles. Such carriers have long been known to be expensive due to the excessively large amount of paperboard required by the carrier blank. Further, they provide no practical handle means for carrying a fully enclosed carton.
In view of the lack of a suitable enclosed carrier for long-necked bottles, it would be highly desirable to provide a carrier of a design which is able to securely hold such articles, is not excessively costly, can be rapidly fabricated from a single blank and can readily be carried by consumers.